The Seven Basic Skills of Wrestling and BJJ

[Darwinist]

A couple of weeks ago I came across the idea of the "Seven Basic Skills" of the sport of wrestling for the first time. For those not in the know, USA Wrestling defines seven motor skills as fundamental to the practice of the sport of wrestling and publishes teaching material for coaches using that framework.

The seven skills are:

• Stance

• Motion

• Level Change

• Penetration

• Lifting

• Back Step

• Back Arch

I thought it was a pretty cool concept to use, since in all of grappling the various techniques are really based on a simple foundation of core motor skills, and in that respect BJJ is no different from wrestling. If anything, in my experience BJJ instruction in general suffers from a lack of focus on these kinds of fundamental movements.

So I posted on Reddit asking people what they would include in a similar list for BJJ. After getting various responses I compiled the following list:


• Base

Base is the ability to maintain good balance in the face of your opponents attempts to unbalance you. If your base is compromised, you are off-balance, robbed off your strength as your ability to create muscular tension is diminished, and you are vulnerable to both sweeps and submissions.

• Posture

Good posture is (generally speaking) the habit of keeping your head up and your back straight to maximise employable physical strength and deny the opponent the ability to break down your physical structure. This skill also includes such principles as denying your opponent access to your hips. Base and posture are skills that feed off each other and are often drilled in tandem - good posture protects your base, and vice versa.

• Pressure

Pressure is the ability to shift and direct your bodyweight towards specific areas of your opponent when on top, in order to maximize your ability to pin him down or to break down specific frames he may throw up to impede your progress.

• Framing

Framing is the science of how to use the anatomical structure of the human skeleton to keep the opponent at bay and his weight off you, rather than using muscular strength to accomplish the same task. Framing is key to working off, or escaping from the bottom positions. In fact most of jiu-jitsu boils down to a battle of the top guys pressure vs the bottom guys frames.

• Gripfighting

Gripfighting is considered one of the "ancillary" skills in wrestling(meaning it didn't make the list of the Big 7, but gets a "honorable mention"), but in Jiu-Jitsu I feel the addition of cloth and the all-round greater prominence of gripping graduates it to the list of Basic Skills. Grips here are interpreted broadly - In BJJ you essentially grip with all your limbs. An understanding of which grips go together, and the push/pull dynamics of guardwork fall under this category.

• Bridging

Bridging is just as important in BJJ as it is in wrestling(where it is generally called a back arch), althought it is not strictly speaking used for the same purposes. Developing a strong bridge will help you with many, many things beyond simple bridging escapes though - a strong indominable back will make your posture harder to break for example.

• Hip Switching

Hip switcihng is the act of dynamicall moving your hips from side to side for various purposes. Hip switching is key for creating angles of attack from guard, to executing technical stand-ups, to killing frames in side control, to defeating open guards. A grappler who takes the time to develop agile, active hips will always be hard to deal with.

That is my list at the moment. My goal was to include only concrete physical skills that one can focus on improving through drills and deliberate situational rolling, rather than more vague concepts such as "timing" and "situational awareness.


Just figured I'd post it here as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[These Two Hands]

That's excellent. Thanks for posting.

 

[Uchi Mata]

I don't think bridging is a fundamental skill in BJJ. If I had to pick one to replace it, I'd say tightness. The ability to restrict your opponent's range of motion in any given position. It's certainly important in wrestling in the context of pinning, but much less so than BJJ where it's central to having the ability to finish.

 

[glyphrichard]

This is really interesting, thanks for posting.

Could the point about 'pressure' be broadened out to incorporate elements of 'tightness' as mentioned above. These feel like part of the same thought to me.

The pressure vs framing thought is really cool but I feel like it applies more specifically to who is attacking and who is defending more so than who is on top and who is on bottom.

 

[Young Turkey]

I don't think bridging is a fundamental skill in BJJ. If I had to pick one to replace it, I'd say tightness. The ability to restrict your opponent's range of motion in any given position. It's certainly important in wrestling in the context of pinning, but much less so than BJJ where it's central to having the ability to finish.

I'd probably consider it to be having dynamic hips. Which would include bridging, sitting out, shrimping, etc

Also agree with the tightness, this is one of those things that really separates the same technique being done by a white belt vs black belt

 

[QingTian]

I think sensing your opponents balance and momentum needs to be mentioned as well.

 

[bob]

The squeeze or tightness is a good one.

I think balance comes into motion... either your own or theirs. For instance starting sitting up with butterfly gaurd.. shifting you butt back and on an angle to use their forward motion agaisnt them.

I really liked this post thanks TS.

 

[DCnMO]

I like this idea. It'd be helpful to know the fundamentals that must be grasped before learning basic techniques. As it is, we learn what's relevant to specific techniques, as we go.

 

[Deleted member 429137]

A couple of weeks ago I came across the idea of the "Seven Basic Skills" of the sport of wrestling for the first time. For those not in the know, USA Wrestling defines seven motor skills as fundamental to the practice of the sport of wrestling and publishes teaching material for coaches using that framework.

The seven skills are:

• Stance

• Motion

• Level Change

• Penetration

• Lifting

• Back Step

• Back Arch

I thought it was a pretty cool concept to use, since in all of grappling the various techniques are really based on a simple foundation of core motor skills, and in that respect BJJ is no different from wrestling. If anything, in my experience BJJ instruction in general suffers from a lack of focus on these kinds of fundamental movements.

So I posted on Reddit asking people what they would include in a similar list for BJJ. After getting various responses I compiled the following list:


• Base

Base is the ability to maintain good balance in the face of your opponents attempts to unbalance you. If your base is compromised, you are off-balance, robbed off your strength as your ability to create muscular tension is diminished, and you are vulnerable to both sweeps and submissions.

• Posture

Good posture is (generally speaking) the habit of keeping your head up and your back straight to maximise employable physical strength and deny the opponent the ability to break down your physical structure. This skill also includes such principles as denying your opponent access to your hips. Base and posture are skills that feed off each other and are often drilled in tandem - good posture protects your base, and vice versa.

• Pressure

Pressure is the ability to shift and direct your bodyweight towards specific areas of your opponent when on top, in order to maximize your ability to pin him down or to break down specific frames he may throw up to impede your progress.

• Framing

Framing is the science of how to use the anatomical structure of the human skeleton to keep the opponent at bay and his weight off you, rather than using muscular strength to accomplish the same task. Framing is key to working off, or escaping from the bottom positions. In fact most of jiu-jitsu boils down to a battle of the top guys pressure vs the bottom guys frames.

• Gripfighting

Gripfighting is considered one of the "ancillary" skills in wrestling(meaning it didn't make the list of the Big 7, but gets a "honorable mention"), but in Jiu-Jitsu I feel the addition of cloth and the all-round greater prominence of gripping graduates it to the list of Basic Skills. Grips here are interpreted broadly - In BJJ you essentially grip with all your limbs. An understanding of which grips go together, and the push/pull dynamics of guardwork fall under this category.

• Bridging

Bridging is just as important in BJJ as it is in wrestling(where it is generally called a back arch), althought it is not strictly speaking used for the same purposes. Developing a strong bridge will help you with many, many things beyond simple bridging escapes though - a strong indominable back will make your posture harder to break for example.

• Hip Switching

Hip switcihng is the act of dynamicall moving your hips from side to side for various purposes. Hip switching is key for creating angles of attack from guard, to executing technical stand-ups, to killing frames in side control, to defeating open guards. A grappler who takes the time to develop agile, active hips will always be hard to deal with.

That is my list at the moment. My goal was to include only concrete physical skills that one can focus on improving through drills and deliberate situational rolling, rather than more vague concepts such as "timing" and "situational awareness.


Just figured I'd post it here as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

This is interesting to me because I didn't start figuring out the open guards until I started repeating the mantra of attack: base, posture, grips. This list makes me realize four other things I should focus on neutralizing when I roll.

 

[DanTheWolfman.com]

Nice stuff,

this could be relevant, practice the 6 basic motions all together

Here teaching at Shooto legend Mach Sakurai Dojo, and in black shorts Nakahara that just won 1st fight at Pancrase 271 show that is on Fight Pass

 

[Perfect form]

SBG has the; posture, pressure, possibilities model.

I would define pressure as position and position to me is controlling space.

 

[Dirty Holt]

I am in many of the USA Wrestling videos for the 7 basic skills. I would disagree with a few of them such as backstep and back arch as being "basic" but I rely heavily on them myself.

For BJJ, you cannot include many of the things, like wrestling, that are important that are not "skills". Things like recognizing pressure, feeling setups, anticipation, etc; these are all senses, not skills.

For me the BJJ skills would be as follows:

Pressure transfer - Applying pressure from any position including top, framing, centripital (things like knee shield, x guard, triangles)

Position - Being in an optimal strategical position in each situation to maximize scoring potential and minimize attacks

Posture - Putting yourself in an optimal biomechanical body stance to maximize scoring potential and minimize attacks

Spin - The ability to spin on your opponent such as back takes, side control/NS situations, top turtle offense, x pass etc

Hip rotation - The ability to offensively and defensively rotate the hips in moves like arm bar, rolling leg lock entries, knee slice, hip bump sweep, shrimping, omaplata, etc

Inversion - The ability to invert to avoid scoring, guard retention, berimbolo, stack defense, leg lock entries, etc

Post stabilization - Commonly known as floating. The ability to use hand, foot, hip, and head placement to stabilize position with less than 4 points of contact. Examples would be Leandro Lo style passing, butterfly guard defense, mount retention, x guard defense, DLR/RDLR defense, deep half defense, etc

 

[Zankou]

Modified somewhat, I would say the fundamental motor skills are not just abstract concepts but rather specific physical skills that you must have down pat in order to function at a high level. Also, they are true *specific skills* in the sense that you must specifically work on training and improving them, rather than just being natural and intuitive physical movements.

(1) Hip escaping. Totally fundamental to move your hips in or out, from side to side. But counter-intuitive; people just want to lay on their back like a bitch.
(2) From top, maintaining floating pressure on your opponent while driving off toes. But counter-intuitive; people just want to keep their weight on the ground (on knees and elbows) rather than putting weight on their opponent.
(3) Inversion. This is not optional anymore. A thousand skills require inversion as their basic foundation. But counter-intuitive; people just want to keep their legs facing towards the ceiling, going 3D is too much.
(4) Rotation under your opponent to either side (i.e., spinning under to capture the leg or spinning the other way to the back ... this rotation, usually from DLR or half guard, is perhaps the most basic modern guard attack mechanic, and yet it is rarely taught). But counter-intuitive; people just want to stay square with their opponent.
(5) Technical standup. From guard, getting your feet under you. Ridiculously useful. But counter-intuitive; people just want to stay on their back like a bitch.
(6) Body rotation while maintaining forward pressure, as with top guard passes. You should be able to pin your opponent and maintain pressure while rotating freely from frontside to backside, from long-step pass to back-step pass. But counter-intuitive; people just want to face their opponent and keep their torso and hips perfectly square.
(7) Basic defensive posture, both from top and bottom, that allows you dynamic freedom of movement while keeping you safe. But counter-intuitive; people just want to clamp onto their opponent like a limpet, stalling any action.

These are the basic physical movements in a modern high-level game, and my key point is that they are all counter-intuitive physical movements specific to BJJ. They require active work to develop, and by natural inclination you will want to avoid them and instead just hold on rigidly, without any dynamic movement. If you are missing any of them, your game is going to be much narrower.

 

[fanboysareevil]

Man, I like most of these lists tbh. Dunno why it needs to be particularly capped at 7.

 

[Darwinist]

The f12 MVPs coming on strong with some stellar posts. Thanks a lot!

I agree with just about everything both Holt and Zankou wrote, and I think that a lot of good things could come out of creating a compendium of the kinds of solo and partner drills that build these specific skills.

Categorizing and structuring something like that is probably beyond a blue belt gnub like me, but I am really curious what more experienced guys, particularly Holt has to say on that topic given his deep exposure to the wrestling way of imparting the basic skills(which IMO is something BJJ could really learn from - from what little I´ve seen of wrestling, it is way way ahead of most BJJ gyms when it comes to pedagogical development.

 

[Darwinist]

Man, I like most of these lists tbh. Dunno why it needs to be particularly capped at 7.

Take it with a grain of salt, but I´ve heard more than one teacher say that certain numbered lists are more likely to be remembered - threes, fives and sevens in particular.

 

[Dirty Holt]

Modified somewhat, I would say the fundamental motor skills are not just abstract concepts but rather specific physical skills that you must have down pat in order to function at a high level. Also, they are true *specific skills* in the sense that you must specifically work on training and improving them, rather than just being natural and intuitive physical movements.

(1) Hip escaping. Totally fundamental to move your hips in or out, from side to side. But counter-intuitive; people just want to lay on their back like a bitch.
(2) From top, maintaining floating pressure on your opponent while driving off toes. But counter-intuitive; people just want to keep their weight on the ground (on knees and elbows) rather than putting weight on their opponent.
(3) Inversion. This is not optional anymore. A thousand skills require inversion as their basic foundation. But counter-intuitive; people just want to keep their legs facing towards the ceiling, going 3D is too much.
(4) Rotation under your opponent to either side (i.e., spinning under to capture the leg or spinning the other way to the back ... this rotation, usually from DLR or half guard, is perhaps the most basic modern guard attack mechanic, and yet it is rarely taught). But counter-intuitive; people just want to stay square with their opponent.
(5) Technical standup. From guard, getting your feet under you. Ridiculously useful. But counter-intuitive; people just want to stay on their back like a bitch.
(6) Body rotation while maintaining forward pressure, as with top guard passes. You should be able to pin your opponent and maintain pressure while rotating freely from frontside to backside, from long-step pass to back-step pass. But counter-intuitive; people just want to face their opponent and keep their torso and hips perfectly square.
(7) Basic defensive posture, both from top and bottom, that allows you dynamic freedom of movement while keeping you safe. But counter-intuitive; people just want to clamp onto their opponent like a limpet, stalling any action.

These are the basic physical movements in a modern high-level game, and my key point is that they are all counter-intuitive physical movements specific to BJJ. They require active work to develop, and by natural inclination you will want to avoid them and instead just hold on rigidly, without any dynamic movement. If you are missing any of them, your game is going to be much narrower.

Why would you eliminate single plane spin from my list? It is far more prevalent in BJJ than inversion or tech standup.

 

[Zankou]

I consider it a variant of floating pressure ... Being able to keep weight on your opponent and move while on your toes. Same basic principle whether controlling from side control or against turtle. Same basic idea just emphasizing a different facet, as it is not usually the spin itself that people struggle with so much as maintaining the pressure and control while rotating back and forth.

 

[QingTian]

(3) Inversion. This is not optional anymore. A thousand skills require inversion as their basic foundation. But counter-intuitive; people just want to keep their legs facing towards the ceiling, going 3D is too much.

What about people who cannot invert? My back and neck really don't feel like they can handle it anymore...

 

[Dirty Holt]

What about people who cannot invert? My back and neck really don't feel like they can handle it anymore...

Then you are physically incapable of doing some of the basic moves that require this motor skill. I would say it isnt necessary to become a skilled competitor, but it would be necessary to be a practitioner who can physically display basic BJJ.

My guess is a lot of old timers and big guys would say I dont know that the fuck I am talking about, but inversion is so basic that neglecting this skill would force you to come up with much less efficient ways to deal with basic problems.

Turning right 3 times will get you moving left, but turning left once is a hell of a lot faster and easier.