Weight Distribution

[Mirada]

One of the most important aspects of my jiujitsu is weight distribution, the ability to place my weight exactly where I want it, and to use my body weight as a direct weapon.

Some of my strategies and techniques for using your body weight.





GUARD PASSING

You've seen Sakuraba do it, the fucking cartwheel pass. It's a fun move and a good surprise attack for the people who don't train with you, but without proper weight distribution it is very hard to finish. A key for my is the allignment of my hips and the positioning of my limbs.

I execute the cartwheel normally, although I am not very acrobatic so it is more of a forward tumble, however as I bring my hips around towards the head, I angle them to the side and pull my legs back away from the ground. This lines my hip bone up with the cracks in their defense. As I come crashing to the ground my hip acts as a wedge that pushes between my opponent's upflung arms and legs. Once I've made impact I unfold my limbs and work for my grips.

This method is helpfull for any sort of guard passing, when you are able to use your weight to wedge your way through their defenses and get a secure position. The knee mount is perfect for executing this strategy, driving all of your weight into a specific point on their body to pin it completely.







Perhaps more to come, depending on how much I need to procrastinate on my academic writing.

 

[hayliks]

No way, nice post! You must be procrastinating, I only wrote big helpful posts when I was procrastinating in school. Go check... I haven't started an informative technique thread since I graduated.

 

[Mirada]

yup.


This was going to be a mile long but I am cold and tired and want to go to bed.


The idea was to explore the intangibles of grappling, those things like weight distribution, balance, hip movement and grips that are so important but so hard to teach, because they aren't really "moves" like an armbar, but more like broad concepts.

 

[Brendon Katz]

im loving grips right now (i only do no-gi). since i started working grips more and submissions less, im getting way more control and way more subs and sweeps than i used to. id love to hear anything either of u guys could spit out about anything jits related, and grips especially.

 

[Slithers]

Agreed. This is the stuff I want to master. Good Thread.

 

[BipolarDan]

Concepts are my favorite:icon_chee . When I'm in the middle of rolling Its much harder for me to go "whats the move again" and the try to apply a specific technique with all the little details than it is to just focus on key concepts like hand placement etc. Then the other techniques open up for me

 

[krellik]

im loving grips right now (i only do no-gi). since i started working grips more and submissions less, im getting way more control and way more subs and sweeps than i used to. id love to hear anything either of u guys could spit out about anything jits related, and grips especially.

Which grips do you use?

I love the grips in no-gi jits to.... Thats how you make it sexy:icon_chee

 

[EclipsedAgent]

WHat part of Nor Cal are you from?

Nice little write up

 

[Mirada]

Chico.


Here is a fun anecdote about weight distribution:


You may have seen my Kung Fu Drama thread earlier, I don't want to get into details but we got screwed over, anyway one of the dudes involved in the heist wanted to train with me and my guys. I decided to give him the chance to explain himself (he didn't do a very good job) and train with us at our temporary spot (which has evaporated since)

So I'm rolling gi with this dude, using mostly technique not a lot of power, but not giving him an inch technically, rolling to prove a point basically. I pass guard and get ot side control and the dude bucks up and puts me in a reverse triangle from his back. He doesn't have a choke but he has strong legs and I'm basically stuck. So I can either move around and try to escape, but risk my position and perhaps giving up N/S and the kimura, or I can do the mean thing and use my weight distrubition methods.

I used my leg to find his head, then raised up my hips, turned them sideways to angle the point of my hip bone towards his face and rested allllll my weight right on his face. I was carefull to make sure that my legs were not touching the ground, and that my only other support came from my arms pulling on the weak side of his triangle.

Obviously he wasn't comfortable and he started to move his head around, but I would just follow him. I got meaner and meaner the longer he held the triangle, untill I was feeling for his nose with my hip, and then his eye socket. I started moving my weight back and forth across his nose from one eye socket to the other, untill eventually he abandoned his triangle completely and I took the mount.

He held out for a minute or two, but I knew that he couldn't move me, and my weight was so perfectly centered on his nose that the poor bastard must have had trouble breathing, not to mention some pain to think about.

It was only a matter of time.



So the nexttime someone tries to stall you out with a stupid upside downtriangle, just ram your pelvis into their eye socket untill they let go.

 

[Brendon Katz]

Which grips do you use?

I love the grips in no-gi jits to.... Thats how you make it sexy:icon_chee

underhooks, grabbin the head, overhooks, grabbin opposite tricep.. if i cant find anything else grabbing the wrist. i find those work best and everything else relies on stength and lack of slipperyness to hold onto. and you?

mirada: nothin like a bit of skullfuckin get rid of those reverse triangles

 

[krellik]

Right now (aside from double neck controll that doesnt count) it is headcontroll/underhook combo, overhook, and two on one arm controll that I use most... Overhook is my most agresive grip leading to the widest variety of submissions. That combined with constantly climbing my legs for a high guard is more or less what my guardgame consists of at the moment..

...Im playing around a bit with the other grips and guards to, I feel that an improved halfguard game is what would benefit me mostly at this point but it feels really really unatural for me, its the being on side stuff thats the hardest for me...

 

[Brendon Katz]

yeh man theres a vid floating around here in one of aesopian's threads that concerns half-guard - its from sbg iceland i think. anyway, its fucking awesome and its taken my half-guard game from annoyingly weak but better than bein in n/s or side control to a good aggressive position that most people are now pulling out of.

as for grips, i find overhook/underhook to be the best combo for setting up sweeps and subs, especially the basic scissor sweep or if they counter that, sit-up/hip bump sweep. 2 on 1 doesnt really do it for me cuz im training with the intention of competin in mma, and i dont like sacrificing defense like that.

aside from guard - i like to get my hand nearest the hips under the lower back and the other hand gripping the far shoulder blade, also as per sbg thing aesopian posted. almost everybody i roll with moves themsevles into n/s from there, and thats a gr8 position to control from. top-mount i work primarily opposite side arm drags.

 

[krellik]

Funny you should mention that vid parallax. I seriously spent 3 hours yesterday watching that instructional and nathan leverton and Mike Jenn... It gave me some new concepts but I need to put the time in with it on the math.

I started out about 20 minutes working it tonight but then the lure of the closed guard and more competitive rolling drawed me in.... But I do know the key is figuring out geting of my back and getting comftable on my side.

 

[Brendon Katz]

ja bro, once i started focusing on gettin to my side, my whole game jumped up 100 notches, its so important. visualisation is a great tool as well. the most important thing to remember (for me at least) is to make sure that you dont get crossfaced. work at it and im sure ull get it!

on a side note, apologies to mirada for turning this into a guard,half-guard and grips thread.

 

[Mirada]

keep it up gentlemen, this is a good thread in the making.

 

[Brendon Katz]

ill post something after my class on tuesday, till then my bjj brain is pretty much done. maybe ill get goofed 2moro and watch adcc and see what new concepts i can come up with

 

[Brendon Katz]

so heres something i noticed tonight from the bottom of halfguard. i went from either side control or n/s to halfguard and my partner already had a cross-face sunk. so i needed to make space. i figured my best bet was to shrimp. i couldnt shrimp normally becus my head was turned away from the usual direction, so i shrimped the other way and i noticed a bit of space opened up and my partner had to rebalance. i thought it was because of the direction and not the movement, so i tried again, but instead of shrimping i tried to roll my opponent. didnt budge. so i shrimped again, and wat do you know i suddenly had space and got the guard back.

moral of the story: shifting weight and placement on the bottom is just as important as on top. also, the same as everything in jits, its always easier to move yourself than to move your opponent. thoughts pls?

 

[thecas]

One thing I noticed in Judo: the Brown/black belts seemed to use their body much more in their throws. Like they bang their bodies into others. On the other hand, lower or white belts tend more to use just their hands and legs to throw. Comment.