Ask A Black Belt!
Jordan Rivas is a BJJ Black Belt in Houston, TX under Eric Williams. As an instructor and regular competitor in both BJJ and MMA, Jordan is uniquely qualified to impart share his knowlege with anyone who wants to grow their game. Let him know if you have any questions by commenting and maybe he can help you out.
Jordan Rivas
Jordan said
We’re gonna have to use a much tougher looking pic than this one! this is unacceptable.
-Jordan
Brendan said
Since most of us know Jordan has a good competition history. Lets get some tips on training for competition and getting prepared for tournaments. Maybe pointers on strategies.
Jordan said
Some important things to remember are to train hard, but dont overtrain. Try to set up your training regiment so that you peak right around the time of the competition. Its a really miserable feeling burning out before your tournament, so try to pay attention to your body. Also, the hardest part of competition training (for me, at least) is maintaining a healthy diet. You have to stay away from fast foods and alcohol as much as possible. As far as technique, focus on your “A game”,.. meaning do what you do best. Dont try any techniques that you dont use everyday in training. Since you cant possible know everyone you are going to compete against, it is important to impose your game on everyone that you compete against. If you force them to play your game, it will take them out of their comfort zone, therefore, they will not be able to use their A-game. If you have any specific questions, let me know. This is a very broad area “competition strategies and techniques”.
-Jordan
Elite MMA.. “Dirty Dirty” aka Baytown
david m said
i am 40 year old blue belt and in attempt to slow down the young super strong atheltic bjj guys. i have been experimenting with the turtle and octopus guard . what do you think of this style of bjj for an old man grappler?
Jordan said
David,
At the blue belt guys should definitely be experimenting with different guards, submissions, sweeps etc.. All through the white and blue belts you should try to absorb as many techniques as possible, this is how you will develop your own individual style. With that being said, I want you to be highly skeptical when learning highly specialized “fancy” guards,and other techniques. The problem with these specialized guards and techniques is that the guys teaching these guards and techniques have taken years to master these techniques. For example, Eduardo Telles’ octopus guard is very hard to work. Telles developed this guard because he was always being smashed by the bigger stronger Terere. The advice I am going to give you is the same advice I give to my blue belts.. Flashy moves look great,.. IF you can pull them off, but fundamentals and good timing are gonna save you and help you recover if you get put into a bad position. So expose yourself to as many new techniques as possible, keep the ones that work for you, toss the ones that dont, and never get discouraged.
Jordan
bjj tx said
how are yall? i was wondering about some good moves from triangle and spider?