Beginner’s Guide – Positions and Submissions

This is a brief overview of BJJ, from theory to practice, from sport to self-defense.  This basically covers  two dimensions to BJJ: Positions and Submissions.

There are two dimensions to BJJ: Positions and Submissions

BJJ Positions

Positions involves controlling the opponent and bettering your chance for submissions, strikes, or to get away.  Realize that if you cannot control a position, you will have less time to attack while your opponent gets out.  For sport, this means giving your opponent points when he gets a better position.  For the street, this means the opponent gets one or two of your punches before he turns the tables and starts pounding on you.

I emphasize to every beginner to start mastering positions first.  Submissions come eventually and this gives them confidence to try more submissions without fear of losing position.  Once I gained confidence in positioning, I would try harder submissions and fail, only to more easily get back to the same position and try again.

Some tips with positioning:

-Positions require patience and timing.  Learn to hold a position and wait.  Let your partner waste his energy trying to escape.  If in a bad position, find a safe stalemate and wait for the right time to escape.  When the opportunity comes (he shifts weight, tries a submission, etc.) explode with a burst of power at the right time to easily escape.

-Positions are divided into holding positions and changing positions.  Learn to hold before changing.  Drills that involve holding a mount position are great for working your skills at holding a position.  Meanwhile, the person on the bottom gets to practice changing his position.  If you have problems holding a position, ask a more senior student for help.

For more specific information on positions and techniques, go to www.bjj.org

BJJ Submissions

Submissions involve any move that causes the person to submit or tap.  Every beginner wants to learn as many submissions as soon as possible.  From here you have the power to end a fight (or match) with either an unconscious opponent or a disabled opponent. 

Then they get frustrated when they try the submission and get sweeped in the process, not realizing that BJJ is like a chess game of trial and error, feints and strategy.  Think of it like war: if you cannot hold a hill and the enemy advances to get the higher ground/better position, you will likely lose the battle.  Positioning is like holding that hill, advancing to a better hill, or being able to retake the hill after the enemy took it. 

Things to be wary about with submissions involve:

-Submissions take a lot of practice and trial and error.  This means you have to be willing to lose a better position to attempt the submission.  Many guys hold a closed guard as if their life depended on it.  It makes the position safe, but narrows the number of submissions that can be attempted.

-Submissions require sensitivity.  Ever tried an armbar on one guy and found it to magically work fast.  Ever tried it where it just won’t work.  The more and more you try submissions, the better your sensitivity is to gauge each varying opponent and each varying position.  This results in attaining a “sweet spot” where the submission works quickly and effectively. 

-Submissions require mechanics, not just strength.  Don’t try to plough through with strength, since it will leave you winded and possibly injure your partner.  Focus on technique and your jiu-jitsu will work better will less strength, which is all the better when you apply full strength in a real fight. 

Self-Defense

If you are capable of being a position expert, you will benefit from the essential seconds it takes to manuever in a fight.  I find it amazing when play fighting with friends as to how quickly I attain a mount position.  Also, being on top allows me to jump up and away to avoid the fight, which is not an option on the bottom.  This is essentially ideal if there is more than one attacker and you need to clear yourself to engage the other person.

Sport

Positioning wins, period.  If you can score any points and then hold the position for 5 minutes, you win.  In my first competition fight, I won 8-0 for getting the back and then the mount (4+4).  I didn’t do submissions that well back then and could not submit him, but I still won due to my positioning abilities.   After each failed submission attempt I was able to secure another position to gain more points or prevent him from scoring.  I was also in very little danger of being submitted due to the dominant positions I retained for most of the fight.

Written by Gavin Holt, Blue Belt